G LO B A L
FAC T S
3
TRENDS IN TRADE ROUTES OF GLOBAL WILDLIFE IMPORTS
DENIED ENTRY TO THE UNITED STATES
WILDLIFE SHIPMENTS WERE DENIED ENTRY to the United States from at least 214 countries and territories
worldwide between 2005 and 2014, according to data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS). To get a better understanding of this
data, Defenders of Wildlife looked closely at the trade routes used for these shipments.
Top 5 Trade Routes
Table 3. Top 5 Trade Routes by Weight
The top five trade routes used for shipments of wildlife denied
entry to the United States (Table 1) emerged from an analysis
of shipments exported from 214 countries and territories and
denied entry at all 64 U.S. ports. Notably, three of the ports of
entry (El Paso, Laredo and Nogales) are not designated for the
import or export of wildlife. Together, these five routes were
used by 18.5 percent of all illegal wildlife shipments entering
the United States in the last decade.
Table 1. Top 5 Trade Routes
Country
Port of
Rank of Export Entry
Rank Route
Pounds
75,883
1
Mexico à Nogales, AZ
2
China à San Francisco, CA
5,182
3
Mexico à Laredo, TX
3,227
4
China à Anchorage, AK
1,235
5
Mexico à El Paso, TX
606
Products
Number of
Shipments
Percentage
of Shipments
1
Mexico
El Paso, TX
3,614
7.3%
2
Mexico
Nogales, AZ
1,616
3.2%
3
China
San Francisco, CA
1,557
3.1%
4
China
Anchorage, AK
1,296
2.6%
5
Mexico
Laredo, TX
1,151
2.3%
Each trade route appeared to have a predominant product type
in terms of volume (Figure 1). From China to Anchorage, hair
products made mostly from weasel hair were most common.
From China to San Francisco, medicinal products, mainly
derived from seahorses, predominated. From Mexico to El
Paso it was powder, mostly made from rattlesnakes; from
Mexico to Laredo, shoes, primarily made of caiman leather;
and from Mexico to Nogales, dead animals—mainly frogs.
Figure 1. Predominant Product Types by Trade Route
Volume
Table 1 shows the top five trade routes ranked according to
the number of shipments detained. However, examining the
contents of these shipments more closely and ranking them
by volume alters the order of the top five routes (Tables 2 and
3). The route from China to Anchorage, which ranked fourth
in terms of shipments, ranks first in terms of the number of
products. The route from Mexico to Nogales, which ranks
second in terms of shipments, ranks first in terms of pounds,
but last in terms of number of products.
DEAD
ANIMALS
MEDICINAL
PRODUCTS
Mexico à
Nogales, AZ
China à
San Francisco, CA
POWDER
Mexico à
El Paso, TX
HAIR
PRODUCTS
China à
Anchorage, AK
SHOES
Mexico à
Laredo, TX
Table 2. Top 5 Trade Routes by Number of Products
Rank Route
Number of
Products
1
China à Anchorage, AK
427,763
2
China à San Francisco, CA
128,883
3
Mexico à El Paso, TX
35,212
4
Mexico à Laredo, TX
13,435
5
Mexico à Nogales, AZ
1,531
Genera
For each trade route one particular genus was most
common. For some it was a genus that could be considered
more ordinary, such as Crotalus (rattlesnake) in the route
from Mexico to El Paso and Odocoileus (white-tailed
deer) in the routes from Mexico to Nogales and from
Mexico to Laredo. Other trade routes showed a more exotic
predominant genus such as Saiga (antelope) in the route
from China to San Francisco, and Pinctada (oyster) in the
route from China to Anchorage.
TRENDS IN TRADE ROUTES OF GLOBAL WILDLIFE IMPORTS DENIED ENTRY TO THE UNITED STATES
For each of the five routes, both the genus and species
information was incomplete to varying degrees. The route
from China to Anchorage showed the highest percentage
of incomplete segments (26.2 percent) with incomplete
genus information. The route from Mexico to El Paso had
the highest percentage of segments with incomplete species
information—67.6 percent.
Source of Products
The order of the top five trade routes shifts again in terms
of the percentage of segments containing products sourced
from the wild (Table 5). Segments from thee route from
China to Anchorage contained products almost exclusively
sourced from the wild, while segments from the China to
San Francisco route were roughly half wild-sourced and half
captive-sourced segments.
Table 5. Wild-Sourced Segments in Top 5 Trade Routes
Rank Route
Percentage of Wildsourced Segments
of segments containing items that also originated in China
(12.9 percent). This indicates that items found in this trade
route frequently originate in countries other than China and
that China is a collection hub for shipments heading to the
United States.
Purpose of Imports
In all but one trade route, China to Anchorage, the majority
of segments were imported for personal purposes. In the route
from China to Anchorage the vast majority of segments, 92
percent, was imported for commercial purposes with only 6.8
percent declared as personal and the remaining 1.2 percent
imported for scientific purposes (Table 7).
Table 7. Personal Imports in Top 5 Trade Routes
Rank Route
Percentage of Personal
Imports by Segments
1
Mexico à Nogales, AZ
92.6%
2
Mexico à El Paso, TX
88.1%
3
Mexico à Laredo, TX
84.2%
4
China à San Francisco, CA
67.8%
5
China à Anchorage, AK
1
China à Anchorage, AK
99.2%
2
Mexico à Nogales, AZ
97.0%
3
Mexico à El Paso, TX
85.2%
4
Mexico à Laredo, TX
69.5%
Live Animals
5
China à San Francisco, CA
52.6%
The volume and occurrence of live animals (including
animals that died during shipment) in each trade route
varied greatly (Table 8). Although the route from China to
San Francisco had the second-lowest number of segments
containing live animals (18), it had the highest volume
of animals (696). This indicates that a small number of
shipments from China to San Francisco contain high
concentrations of live animals, while other routes—such as
Mexico to Nogales—see higher frequencies of shipments, but
much lower volumes of live animals.
Country of Origin
The country of origin refers to the country from which items
originated and is not necessarily the country from which
the shipment was exported. Interestingly, the percentage
of segments containing items that originated in the same
country as the country of export varied greatly depending on
the trade route (Table 6). The route from Mexico to Laredo
had the highest percentage of segments containing items that
also originated in Mexico (94.3 percent). Alternatively, the
route from China to San Francisco had the lowest percentage
Table 6. Country of Origin for Top 5 Trade Routes
Rank Route
Percentage of
Segments Originating
in Export Country
1
Mexico à Laredo, TX
94.3%
2
Mexico à Nogales, AZ
92.8%
3
Mexico à El Paso, TX
69.7%
4
China à Anchorage, AK
29.9%
5
China à San Francisco, CA
12.9%
6.8%
Table 8. Live Animals in the Top 5 Trade Routes
Route
Number of
Segments
Number of
Animals
Mexico à El Paso, TX
64
116
Mexico à Nogales, AZ
220
351
18
696
7
221
70
125
China à San Francisco, CA
China à Anchorage, AK
Mexico à Laredo, TX
For more information please contact: Alejandra Goyenechea, [email protected]
For updates, visit www.defenders.org/combating-wildlife-trafficking
04/16